A new year. A fresh start. A time to develop healthy habits and work toward big goals. And, I am here for all of it! I LOVE this time of year – it’s an opportunity to reflect on the previous year and pray about future plans and goals for the new year. During one of the last evenings of December, Tyler and I performed a spontaneous year end review. We each spoke about wins, losses, growth, and lessons of 2024. Side note -I still pinch myself during moments like this…that God gave me someone who loves going to the deep with me on the daily. It was an awesome time of connection for us both. I highly recommend doing this solo and then with your person.

After we brought in the New Year with friends, I had some quiet prayer time with Jesus, Timber (one of my pups), and coffee. How would I sum up 2024 in one word? Surrender…2024 was the year of letting go. Letting go of hurts. Letting go of policing others, letting go of trying to control relationships and other people’s behaviors. Letting go of my expectations. It hasn’t been a once and done act. It is a continuous process or practice. More like a daily surrender. But, once I started opening my hands and giving each situation or person to God and His sovereignty, He in turn gave me freedom, humility, and a perspective to see others through more of a Jesus lens. It has been a wonderful, life shifting experience!

So then looking forward, what’s my word for 2025? It’s ABUNDANCE. An abundance of fruit in my life. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.” – Galatians 5:22-23 CSB. I want to be so full of Jesus and His Spirit, that His attributes spill out of my life. Or, as a good friend of our says, “I want to reek of Jesus.” Is this going to be easy? Am I aiming for perfection? Is it just a pursuit for one year? No. I used to spend a LOT of time praying for more forgiveness in my heart, more peace, more joy, etc. Until….I realized that I can pray for these things until I’m blue in the face, but if I’m not spending more time with Jesus – more time in His Word – these fantastic characteristics will not grow in me. It only happens by spending time at the feet of Rabbi Jesus – following The Way.

I have found that I need to purposefully plan things in order for me to be intentional with doing or completing most any task, activity, or goal. That said, I’m not rigid about plans evolving or changing. I think I’m pretty good at letting God steer the ship and allowing Him to change things up as we go. I don’t ever want to let my stubbornness get in the way (I surely have in the past!). I just want to be obedient. To go where He calls me. Where am I going with this? The other day while I was listening to KLOVE, I heard a little blurb about daily Bible reading plans. It included a backstory of how middle eastern disciples would spend nearly every waking moment with their rabbi. Not only would they soak in the teachings and practices of their rabbi, they would also immerse themselves in reading scripture to the point of memorization. Therefore, it was suggested by a modern day rabbi to read through the gospels in 2025 – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Not just once, though. Read about 5 chapters a day to get through the gospels in a month. Then, repeat. Do it for the entire year. Spend a year with Rabbi Jesus. REALLY learning about his life and his teachings.

My husband and I talked about this last night and by this morning, he sent out this message to our community group, asking if they wanted to join us! If you don’t have a daily Bible reading system in place or would like to add another one, consider joining us, too! I’d love to hear your “a-ha” moments along the way – either here or on my Facebook page. Here’s to a year of sitting at Rabbi Jesus’ feet!! Happy New Year!!